How to create virtual product which is configurable as well?

Question

My scenario is like this. I want to create some products which are virtual (means we are not going to deliver). But at the same time those products need to be configurable as well.

But in Magento I can create either configurable products or virtual products. But my requirement is to create virtual products which are configurable. How to combine these two product types into one?

Or else are there any solutions to achieve this? (Other than creating a new custom product type by combining the features of virtual and configurable product types)

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Answer 1

You are right, Magento does not support virtual configurable products.
But you can overcome this by using custom options.
So let's say you want to create a virtual product called 'Voucher' and you want the user to be able to select a field called Value with options 10, 25, 50.

Create the virtual product,
Add a custom option called Value with type dropdown.
Add 3 options with values 10, 25 and 50 and a specific price for each value if needed.

Save and enjoy.
The downside of this is that you cannot keep a stock for each option. but ayway...it's a virtual product. It should always be in stock.

Answer 2

It seems that it is possible to achieve this behavior in newer Versions of Magento. In Magento 1.9 you are able to create a configurable Product with virtual variants. The only thing you have to do differently is to create the virtual products first and then add them to your configurable product.

This answer describes the process in detail.